Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev meets Andy Murray in the first round of the French Open at Roland Garros. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Andy Murray’s near-photographic memory swept through his personal archive and he zeroed in on Andrey Golubev, recalling that his opponent in the first round of the French Open was a murderous if scattergun hitter of a tennis ball.

“Very dangerous,” was his recollection of the Russian-born Kazakh, whose shot selection can be random but fierce. “He goes for everything.”

Discounting a Hopman Cup match in 2010, the last time they met on Tour was six years ago in St Petersburg, where Golubev’s impetuosity got the better of him and he was able to win just one game in each set of the final.

“Of course,” the 26-year-old says, when asked if he gives himself a chance against the reigning Wimbledon champion. “Yes, they were two easy matches for him but it was a long time ago and he was playing great in that time. But every match is different, even if you play one month ago and then you have to play the next week.”

“We’ve never met on clay. It’s a good challenge for me. Of course it’s not easy to play top guys on any surface. However, when we go on court, everyone has 50:50. Then he has to show he is better than me, and of course I will try my best.”

He agrees with Murray’s synopsis of his game, saying it has always seemed natural for him to attack at every opportunity. And he has the recent history of a win over Stanislas Wawrinka in the Davis Cup to buoy his confidence.

“That’s my tennis. I have to play my way. Every match, you can be different with the tactics, with the small things, but basically I will attack for sure. I’m not going to stay five metres behind the baseline just waiting for his mistakes.”

Golubev is no one-dimensional slogger, it transpires. In the tradition of players from the former eastern bloc, Golubev likes nothing better than to lose himself in the literary works of his country’s celebrated writers.

Murray once famously recounted the time he got halfway through a Harry Potter book and gave up because it was too long. Golubev has a little more patience, addicted as he is to the works Fyodor Dostoevsky, currently Crime and Punishment, the Taxi Driver of its day.

“I change [my selection] sometimes, and take an easy book instead of something more difficult,” he says. “It can be more interesting. It depends on the situation. I think Mikhail Youzhny and Sergiy Stakhovsky, they like to read these types of books. Now in our lives it’s a good time to do it. In school or when you’re too young you don’t understand. Now it’s the perfect time.”

He baulks though at following the lead of Janko Tipsarevic, who has a Dostoevsky quote tattooed on his arm. “I would not do that, I do not like tattoos.” Whether or not that was on health grounds, he did not say, but he does not want for advice on that front.

Golubev says his parents, who are both doctors, never tried to steer him towards academia or a life more high-minded than earning a living from tennis.

“They just tried to keep me healthy, especially my mother. She’s always: ‘You have to be careful, doing this, doing that.’ They say always what is going to be the worst in any situation. Because they’re doctors they know every kind of situation. I say: ‘Mum, if everyone thinks like that, they’ll just stay at home because they’re scared about everything.’”

Golubev is 26, just a couple of months younger than Murray, and, although ranked 53 in the world, with a career high of 33 and earning well from the game, he is already thinking about life after tennis, and wants to do a degree in marketing administration. That may sound utterly dull, compared with his life in the global caravan of tennis, but the sport does not consume him as it does some.

Life, meanwhile, is good for Golubev. He enjoys the experience, loves the locker-room banter and feels privileged to be part of a sport that takes him to places he might not otherwise see – especially if cramming for university exams.

“Tennis is a big world and it gives you many opportunities,” he says. “I have good friendships with many players, especially Russian-speaking players. We all say ‘our’; it doesn’t matter if it’s people from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, we say: ‘What did our guys do today?’ With Denis Istomin, we’re much closer. We go out for dinner many times.”

And, on the potentially touchy subject of relations between Russia and Ukraine, Golubev says the players are as pragmatic over dinner as they can be on court. “We are sportsmen. Of course we discuss that and we give our opinions, but it stays there. We could speak for 100 hours, and we would change nothing.”